Bandies Looks to Provide Comfort While Wearing Face Masks

Business woman and inventor, Barb Worman, has utilized the resources at Atwood Innovation Plaza to create a fun new product. Barb recalls one of her first work sessions in the Plaza’s Makerspace, “I was having fun learning and working but kept getting distracted by constantly needing to readjust my face mask.” At that moment she decided to make a neck band to hold her mask’s straps. Expecting the project to take a few hours at most, it turned into weeks of work, and resulted in a little piece of colorful lightweight resin. The first Bandie was born! After making several Bandies for nurses at Lake View Hospital in Bountiful and receiving rave reviews, Barb brought on her sister, Sandy Jackson, as her business partner and they got to work.

The duo started mass-producing an assortment of 30 candy-colored Bandies. Barb aimed to make Bandies “colorful, lightweight and flexible”. She believes if people are required to wear masks Bandies can offer aid in making them easier and more comfortable to wear.

Barb stressed how pivotal the Makerspace was to the company’s success, saying, “It literally changed our lives. I was visiting family in St. George at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in May, and learned from my nieces about the resources at Dixie State University. I was a student at Dixie College in the late 80s, and was excited to realize there was a Makerspace available for me to use, even if I wasn’t enrolled as a student. In the Makerspace I found large printers, sewing machines, and 3-D printers.”

“The best part about the Makerspace is the people,” said the sisters. “We couldn’t have made Bandies without the Makerspace’s skilled employees and their guidance.”

For more information on Bandies, please click here.

For more information on the Makerspace, please click here.